text: In 2009 at MIT, Daniel Nocera's lab first developed the "artificial leaf", a device made from silicon and an anode electrocatalyst for the oxidation of water, capable of splitting water into hydrogen and oxygen gases. In 2012, Nocera came to Harvard and The Silver Lab of Harvard Medical School joined Nocera’s team. Together the teams expanded the existing technology to create the Bionic Leaf. It merged the concept of the artificial leaf with genetically engineered bacteria that feed on the hydrogen and convert CO in the air into alcohol fuels or chemicals.
  The first version of the teams Bionic Leaf was created in 2015 but the catalyst used was harmful to the bacteria. In 2016, a new catalyst was designed to solve this issue, named the "Bionic Leaf 2.0". Other versions of artificial leaves have been developed by the California Institute of Technology and the Joint Center for Artificial Photosynthesis, the University of Waterloo, and the University of Cambridge.